recesses of individual freedom as would have been thought inconceivable thirty or forty years ago. Compulsory military service, compulsory education, compulsory insurance are but milestones on the road which logically leads to the adoption of a State morality, a State creed, and of a common way of life. To say this is merely to indicate the probable trend, not to approve it.”
“How, then, is the State of the future going to deal with a people in its midst which largely preserves its separateness of blood, which in its fasts, its festivals, its day of rest, its dietary laws, its marriage ceremony, suggests a distinct historic entity?”
The question is a disturbing one to Jews, as is shown by Rabbi Segal’s words in “The Future of Judaism.” He even says that “the medieval State, with all its tyranny and obscurantism” was more favorable to the Jews than the modern type of State. “Its defective organization permitted both individuals and whole classes to live their life in their own way. Hence the medieval State enabled the Jews to organize themselves on semi-national lines, and, as far as circumstances permitted, to create afresh in their dispersion the national institutions and practices of their ancient commonwealth.”
They did this, of course, by establishing the ghetto.
“But this has become an absolute impossibility in the modern State ,” continues the rabbi. “The rise of democracy and the transference of the ultimate power of government from the oligarchy to the majority involves the practical suppression of weak minorities. The identification of the State with the culture and aspiration of a particular nationality leads inevitably to the crippling of and gradual extinction of those classes who do not share that particular culture and those aspirations . The State, moreover, enforces a system of education which is purposely designed to fashion and to mold all the inhabitants * It also maintains a thorough-going